7 News Belize

Barber Dies 7 Weeks After Being Shot In Head
posted (July 13, 2017)
51 days ago on May 23rd, 23 year old Hammon Lemoth was shot inside 'One Love' barber shop on Central American Boulevard. Lemoth was trimming a client when a gunman barged in and opened fire. Lemoth was hit to the head by one of nine bullets. That was over 7 weeks ago - and despite the shot to the head, Lemoth survived. That battle to recovery was a struggle - since he had lost part of his brain. And Lemoth lost that fight at 11:00 this morning.

This evening his mother told us what is keeping her strong in the face of this loss.

Courtney Weatherburne - Reporter
"Could you shed any light as to what happened that night in May?"

Clara Salman, Mother of Deceased
"All I could say is that I heard gunshots. My daughter's house isn't too far away from the barber shop where Hammon was working. And we heard gunshots and we heard that it's by the barbershop. So when I went to see, my son in law and another guy were lifting him out of the barber shop to take him into an ambulance. That's when we reached there. He got a shot here, and came out through the back of his ear and he had a big dent in here, where the doctor said that the fragments of the bullet broke his skull in like 200 pieces. So they had to remove that and then they removed some of his brain, some of his tissues; so the brain, some parts neva dih get enough oxygen, neva had enough blood flow. He came out the 8th of July and then yesterday we had to call the ambulance to come and, you know, the paramedics to come and check him because he was having this heavy breathing and heavy cold sweat and groaning."

Courtney Weatherburne - Reporter
"And even when he came out, still he wasn't talking? He was in a wheelchair?"

Clara Salman, Mother of Deceased
"He wasn't in a wheelchair; he was just lying on a bed. He was just lying in a bed. No kind of movements. His limbs, you know, only sometimes when he gets stiff, you know because we had to do therapy on him."

Courtney Weatherburne - Reporter
"But regardless of that, you guys still had hope, right? That he would have made it. You guys had hope."

Clara Salman, Mother of Deceased
"Yes, where there is life there is hope. So I didn't give up. I knew that probably he wouldn't last for too long, so many years, you know. But I still had hope that God will have his way. It's kind of hard for me knowing that I lose one of my child but then again, I am consoled by the memory of him being a good person."

Hammon Lemoth's sister posted on the internet that he was targeted because he was trimming young men from a rival gang area. The gang who controls the area he was working in had warned him against it. Police had made no arrest for the shooting, and will now treat it as a murder investigation. Lemoth had moved to the city from Ontario when he was 22. He was a cook by day, and a barber by night.

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